Hey all, I'm looking at making a MythTV device that sits and looks
right in an AV rack and behaves like a dedicated consumer device. I
figure I need the right hardware and dedicated Linux and MythTV
distributions that provide a combination of consistent branding and
super-fast power-on. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of
thing?
I'm looking for pointers to barebones embedded linux devices like the
idvd-6086 from GCT-AllWell (http://www.allwell.com.tw/idvd-6086.htm),
though preferably based on regular x86 PC hardware since that gives me
the best shot at having all the hardware support MythTV needs to run at
its best). Is that something I need to worry about, or is MythTV
portable to other hardware architectures?
Does anyone have suggestions for appropriate platforms? My requirements
include:
* an enclosure that looks like an AV component (not just a funky
looking PC case)
* clean front panel with little more than the basic requirements:
- IR receiver, power button, CD/CD-R/DVD/DVD-R drive, maybe USB,
little else
* TV in, TV out over S-Video/composite/component out, 5.1 surround
and S/PDIF sound out
* space for at least one 3.5" HDD internally in addition to the CD
drive
* minimal noise output!
* adequate CPU power for live TV with one tuner on a combined
front/backend box; I'm willing to trade off CPU vs. hardware capture
encoding though
* probably a bunch of other things I'm not thinking of right now :-)
I'm also looking for pointers to resources to help creating that
'invisible embedded linux' experience :-) If I got something like a
Pundit (http://usa.asus.com/products/desktop/pundit/overview.htm),
installed Mandrake or some other distribution and added MythTV... I'd
end up with an AV component that took two minutes to switch on and sent
all sorts of Linux boot-up stuff to the screen. What I want is a box
where I hit 'On' and get a nice logo on the screen for 30 - 40 seconds
and is then ready to go!
I figure that requires two or three things:
* a heavily stripped down linux dist (minimal stuff to do during
startup)
* some customisation (like making the boot sequence display just a
logo w/out detail of what's happening)
* maybe using a flash ROM or similar boot solution
Anyone worked on anything like this? Pointers? Suggestions? Any help
would be very much appreciated! :-)
L.
right in an AV rack and behaves like a dedicated consumer device. I
figure I need the right hardware and dedicated Linux and MythTV
distributions that provide a combination of consistent branding and
super-fast power-on. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of
thing?
I'm looking for pointers to barebones embedded linux devices like the
idvd-6086 from GCT-AllWell (http://www.allwell.com.tw/idvd-6086.htm),
though preferably based on regular x86 PC hardware since that gives me
the best shot at having all the hardware support MythTV needs to run at
its best). Is that something I need to worry about, or is MythTV
portable to other hardware architectures?
Does anyone have suggestions for appropriate platforms? My requirements
include:
* an enclosure that looks like an AV component (not just a funky
looking PC case)
* clean front panel with little more than the basic requirements:
- IR receiver, power button, CD/CD-R/DVD/DVD-R drive, maybe USB,
little else
* TV in, TV out over S-Video/composite/component out, 5.1 surround
and S/PDIF sound out
* space for at least one 3.5" HDD internally in addition to the CD
drive
* minimal noise output!
* adequate CPU power for live TV with one tuner on a combined
front/backend box; I'm willing to trade off CPU vs. hardware capture
encoding though
* probably a bunch of other things I'm not thinking of right now :-)
I'm also looking for pointers to resources to help creating that
'invisible embedded linux' experience :-) If I got something like a
Pundit (http://usa.asus.com/products/desktop/pundit/overview.htm),
installed Mandrake or some other distribution and added MythTV... I'd
end up with an AV component that took two minutes to switch on and sent
all sorts of Linux boot-up stuff to the screen. What I want is a box
where I hit 'On' and get a nice logo on the screen for 30 - 40 seconds
and is then ready to go!
I figure that requires two or three things:
* a heavily stripped down linux dist (minimal stuff to do during
startup)
* some customisation (like making the boot sequence display just a
logo w/out detail of what's happening)
* maybe using a flash ROM or similar boot solution
Anyone worked on anything like this? Pointers? Suggestions? Any help
would be very much appreciated! :-)
L.